Rating: 
Summary: Spellbounding
Review: The cover caught my eye and i thought that looks like an interesting book. Firstly i was going to give it away the beginning was quite dull. Im so glad i didnt the story is fabulous the fight of freedom from the powerful V'ornn. The kundalans who dont give up. There are alot of twists it has a great plot and my favourite character in Giyan she sound stong beautiful and committed to the fight. I cant wait for the next book. I hope its as great as the first one.
Rating:
Summary: Very nice balance between science and magic
Review: The V'ornn have conquered the Kundalan people and are raping their planet but are unable to get to the bottom of their secrets. Yet, secrets are what the V'ornn are truly seeking. Although the Kundalan feel abandoned by their goddess, still, their magical powers give them the a limited ability to resist the advanced science of the V'ornn. Some day, their prophesy holds, a savior will come to reclaim their ancient religion.Eric Van Lustbader does a great job developing a well balanced match of science and magic which, before the end of this series are certain to come together into something more holistic. The internal politicing, murder, feuds, and jockeying for position within the V'ordd is also well developed. I especially liked the development of the unscrupulous Kurgan. While most of Van Lustbader's characters are fairly flat (they are always heroic, or cheating, or drunk, or sadistic), Kurgan is a bit more complex, filled with hatred but capable of learning and changing. Given that most of this books villains are dead at the end, I suspect we'll see a lot more of Kurgan in furture volumes. Van Lustbader mixes up the action with mysticism, giving the reader a fast moving melange of treats.
Rating: 
Summary: It's an O.K. Book
Review: This book was pretty good. As long as you don't worry about the pronounciation it has an entertaining plot. This book is great if you are not hung up about little details.
Rating:
Summary: It's an O.K. Book
Review: This book was pretty good. As long as you don't worry about the pronounciation it has an entertaining plot. This book is great if you are not hung up about little details.
Rating:
Summary: Solid stuff
Review: This is book one of a five-book doorstopper series that will probably be 3500 pages total.... Therefore, know what you're getting into. This book has some background easily recognizable to Dune fans: the concubine witch with the heart of gold who births the possible messiah, the reformist (or less evil) conquering governor, the family rivalries, the corrupted magical women's cult that seeks to control events from behind-the-scenes, the indigenous people of the out-of-the-way planet who hold the future of the cosmos in their hands. Lustbader's addition of high fantasy elements, faster pacing and dearth of (overt) moralizing separate this from Dune in clear ways. But his source material is easy to discern. That said, this is a good merger of fantasy with science fiction: the characters and their motivations are believable, the action is quick, the dramatis personae is not too extensive, the writing is good, the plotline is coherent, and the pacing is very good for a first book of a multivolume series. There are numerous twists, some obvious, others not. Lustbader is a pro and has been writing for decades, he has honed novel-crafting skills, therefore he lets the story evolve so as to maintain interest without swamping you with information and strange arcana.
Rating: 
Summary: Run away. Far, far away.
Review: This was a painful book. Overall, it was melodramatic, with very poor charachter development. The plot was irritating at best, rather overblown by the author's fascination with peculiar inter species romances.
Rating:
Summary: Not Recommended
Review: When I started this book, I believed that it was promising. It has an interesting protagonist, Annon. However as I continued through the book I found it sorely lacking.
He seems to fluctuate in his writing style throughout the book. He as an odd way of writing. Sometimes he will have a point of view from one character then jump to another without any transition of any kind. It was like being dumped in hot and cold water in some of the worst transitions. Within a matter of maybe a page Annon was welcomed into the abbey and is immediately ushered to witness a torture session. He uses certain phrases in the book far too often, it becomes annoyingly repititive. Giyan, a female Kundalan, is described as having willow-something blue eyes throughout the book. He loves to say 'tender parts', which halfway through the book annoyed me so much that I almost gave up on it. Really, 'head over tender parts?' He has a throughly bizarre unpredictability, which I find causes some of the circumstances to be repulsive. Having a VERY MALE character go into the body of a FEMALE is disgusting. And the circumstances surrounding the transition are ridiculous to say in the least. 'Only one way to save him, the Nanthera!' Come on! Are you telling me that two powerful 'witches' can't even divise a plan that doesn't involve risking severe phychological damage to an adolescent by putting him in an attractive female body? How about simply hiding him until the soldiers go away? 'No matter what the cost' is the motto that the witches repeat to convince themselves that putting him in a female's body is necessary. It is quite ridiculous. Annon, falls in love with a rape victim who he failed to protect and vice versa. Doesn't that seem a little bit odd? The time frame between the rape and the falling in love are within a very short time period. The rape victim is completely recovered in that time frame. It takes months, years, even decades for a complete recovery, and that shadow is with them for the rest of their lives, and yet, here we are, only days and we see a complete recovery. Odd, no? And another thing! He tried WAY too hard to show the differences between the races. From what I remember, V'orn have one lung, turqoise blood, a conical head, black or white eyes, and a host of other things that try too such extremes to show the differences between the races. All of this book is filled with angst, anger, hate, violence, and lust. And only the tiniest bit of hope and love, about 5 pages max. This book is NOT recommended to anyone especially if they have an emotional illness. He is very preoccupied with sex and lust, even the torture of Astar has a large cylindrical object going down her throat. Lustbader's characters are either evil, good, or neutral. No 'real' characters at all. Most human beings are a shade of the two. Most are evil, like Stoggul. Some are good like Giyan. And the neutral ones are the people who appear and are killed immediately or only have a brief appearence. Good authors round their characters, make them believable, and make them have shades of good and evil. Annon only had two faults, wanting revenge, and lust, that was it. And that was the main character. I can almost imagine why his book is so full of lust and pain. As a child he must have been drawn to pain and dominance and a large attraction to sex. He has brought all these dark things into his writing. Even if he did not have these things in his books, his writing would still lack the quality and finesse of a good writer.
Rating:
Summary: Not Recommended
Review: When I started this book, I believed that it was promising. It has an interesting protagonist, Annon. However as I continued through the book I found it sorely lacking.
He seems to fluctuate in his writing style throughout the book. He as an odd way of writing. Sometimes he will have a point of view from one character then jump to another without any transition of any kind. It was like being dumped in hot and cold water in some of the worst transitions. Within a matter of maybe a page Annon was welcomed into the abbey and is immediately ushered to witness a torture session. He uses certain phrases in the book far too often, it becomes annoyingly repititive. Giyan, a female Kundalan, is described as having willow-something blue eyes throughout the book. He loves to say 'tender parts', which halfway through the book annoyed me so much that I almost gave up on it. Really, 'head over tender parts?' He has a throughly bizarre unpredictability, which I find causes some of the circumstances to be repulsive. Having a VERY MALE character go into the body of a FEMALE is disgusting. And the circumstances surrounding the transition are ridiculous to say in the least. 'Only one way to save him, the Nanthera!' Come on! Are you telling me that two powerful 'witches' can't even divise a plan that doesn't involve risking severe phychological damage to an adolescent by putting him in an attractive female body? How about simply hiding him until the soldiers go away? 'No matter what the cost' is the motto that the witches repeat to convince themselves that putting him in a female's body is necessary. It is quite ridiculous. Annon, falls in love with a rape victim who he failed to protect and vice versa. Doesn't that seem a little bit odd? The time frame between the rape and the falling in love are within a very short time period. The rape victim is completely recovered in that time frame. It takes months, years, even decades for a complete recovery, and that shadow is with them for the rest of their lives, and yet, here we are, only days and we see a complete recovery. Odd, no? And another thing! He tried WAY too hard to show the differences between the races. From what I remember, V'orn have one lung, turqoise blood, a conical head, black or white eyes, and a host of other things that try too such extremes to show the differences between the races. All of this book is filled with angst, anger, hate, violence, and lust. And only the tiniest bit of hope and love, about 5 pages max. This book is NOT recommended to anyone especially if they have an emotional illness. He is very preoccupied with sex and lust, even the torture of Astar has a large cylindrical object going down her throat. Lustbader's characters are either evil, good, or neutral. No 'real' characters at all. Most human beings are a shade of the two. Most are evil, like Stoggul. Some are good like Giyan. And the neutral ones are the people who appear and are killed immediately or only have a brief appearence. Good authors round their characters, make them believable, and make them have shades of good and evil. Annon only had two faults, wanting revenge, and lust, that was it. And that was the main character. I can almost imagine why his book is so full of lust and pain. As a child he must have been drawn to pain and dominance and a large attraction to sex. He has brought all these dark things into his writing. Even if he did not have these things in his books, his writing would still lack the quality and finesse of a good writer.
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